SPARTAN 102
"I'll miss you..." -Spartan 102's last words "I was wondering which would break first. Your spirit? Or your body?!" -Spartan 102 upon defeating ONI Agent Codename Everest in hand to hand combat. SPARTAN - 102, Jack, was a SPARTAN II Commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. He was a member of Spartan Team Hoplite during the Great War, later a war criminal and convict. Biography Born into a farming family on Harvest, with an overbearing mother and a drunk policeman for a father, Jack didn't have the most humble of beginnings. Through his childhood he suffered the occasional school bully, one of the most prominent nicknames he'd become subject to was "Fireman Jack", not something the teachers and mentors considered sinister at the time. The truth behind it was rather more disturbing however, as several days prior to his second year at the school, his mother was killed in an inferno at the local bank, and Jack had tried desperately to save her by crawling through the flames with a makeshift hosepipe, attempting to hose down the fierce blaze and reach his mother. Despite his best efforts, Jack's mother died in the fire. The schoolboys learned of this, and one particular bully, "Warrachk Will" as he was called, decided to torment Jack regarding his mother's death. Again, the teachers and Jack's mentors were unaware of the entire truth behind the namecalling, and in some cases suspected it to be friendly. That was until they found "Warrachk Will", named after one of the most ferocious beasts on the planet Harvest, beaten to within an inch of his life with Jack standing over the crippled child, looking shaken, knuckles blooded. Doctor Catherine Halsey's Intervention Following the incident, Jack was taken into care, and even custody with the police force for such a vicious beating inflicted upon another small boy. Jack's father was slowly sobering up following the death of his wife, vowing never to drink again... Or not until Jack had become independant. It was at this time that Doctor Catherine Halsey found herself on Harvest, inspecting a pair of candidates for the Spartan Program, when she heard about the incident. She investigated cautiously, thinking nothing more of the boy than a simple nutcase, but she was surprised to see his intelligence scores to date had been amongst some of the best across the planet, and his perception during police trials was reported to be above average. Most notable however was his short fuse. Halsey decided to take Jack into the Spartan Program, replacing him with a flash clone after flashing ONI papers at the Police Station, he was used to fill in the spot of a candidate that had gone missing. The original Candidate 102. And so began Jack's life as a Spartan. Spartan Program At age 7, Jack was abducted, and taken into the Spartan Program alongside 74 other candidates of impressive backgrounds and each posessing special skills, and remarkable aptitude. He was eager to start, and showed no resentment towards his previous life, where he'd been destined to become a farmer, if he were ever released from jail. Jack was surprised to learn he wasn't the only one who'd been picked up from a troubled background, it was quite a common story, and sharing these stories made each of the Spartans feel much more at home with eachother. Training started off heavy, and Jack was unprepared for it, he considered himself one of the underdogs no thank to a pessimistic frame of mind the exercises had put him in. He'd not been eating correctly, he was falling behind in most studies, and training was becoming too hard on him. This was all until he was antagonized by one of the guards, or "Mentors" assigned to keep the children in line and help them where need be. He lay asleep one night, in his own bed, nobody bunking with him, and he began to roll around in bed and groan. He was having a nightmare. One of the guards came over quickly, but instead of helping Jack out in any way, he merely whispered into his ear; "Fireman Jack, Fireman Jack, you can't save them all". With this, Jack awoke immediately, flung into a rage both by his dream and by the guard's torment. Before Chief Petty Officer Mendez, Jack's chief training instructor could arrive on the scene however, there was nothing left. Jack had broken the guard's arms and eventually his neck, and now stood over the body, defiant of anyone who dare approach him. But approach him Mendez did, and after a brief tussle, Mendez knocked some sense into Jack and the boy was sent back to sleep as the remaining guards cleaned up the mess. Following the incident in his bunk, Jack found his inspiration once more. He was going to become a Spartan, no matter what this project asked of him, he would step up to the plate each and every time, fearlessly. Nay, defiantly, stubbornly, refusing to give in and pay anyone the satisfaction of seeing him fail. Augmentation Procedures When the night came for Jack and the remaining Spartan candidates to begin their augmentation procedures, Jack had become somewhat nervous, he had been pulled to one side and administered more drugs than the others without any explanation as to why, and his classmates were nonethewiser. The Procedures went ahead as planned, and Jack took his place, he inquired again about the extra drugs when he was lain to rest on his designated operating table, but he was denied an answer. Everything went on schedule, and soon the Spartans were being injected, moulded, drugged, twisted, morphed and built into the biggest, strongest they'd ever been. Many did not survive the night, and as such there were many empty seats in the mess hall the next week. Halsey visited him one night during his recovery period, as he had taken an extraordinarily long time to fully recover. She explained to him that because of his mental disposition, his nightmares, how he was never truly at peace, the procedures for him were exponentially more dangerous because they could not find a way to relax a single muscle in his body. He was administered depressants, which Halsey swiftly apologized for, to keep his mood levels as low as possible to make his particular procedure as risk free as possible. Following his recovery, he, along with the remaining candidates, were accelerated into the final stage of Spartan Training; MJOLNIR. Spartan Team Hoplite Jack had been assigned to Spartan Team Hoplite, composed of some of his brothers and sisters from the Spartan Program, and organised into a deadly covert ops team. Their typical objectives held political significance, be that including pushing back relentless Innsurrectionist attacks or eliminating high ranking Covenant officials, Hoplite were always on top of their game and operated very efficiently for a unit. The Great War Jack served with Spartan Teams Omega and Hoplite throughout the duration of the Great War, operating as the team's tank, or weapons "platform". Unfortunately, because of past events and his emotional instablility, he was soon exposed to the beginning symptoms of PTSD, and his emotional control began to wilter even further. It was during this time that ONI filed a report on him specifically, debating whether or not to remove him from duty with immediate effect. It was decided that they should medicate him, as no Spartan could be afforded retirement with the war going as it was. This was 2547. His medication did it's job and kept his control steady over the concurrent three years, until in 2550, during a routine armour check-up and a basic medical examination, he was put to sleep. Unfortunately, this had an adverse effect to what the Engineers and Doctors were hoping for, and he slipped into REM Sleep (Paradoxical sleep), something he was quite unprepared for and entirely unfamiliar with. During his REM Sleep, he was forced to rewatch his mother's death, something that the Spartan Program had been desperately trying to help him forget. The sudden trauma began to terrify him, but during his REM Sleep he was unable to move, or act in any way, so he was forced to continue watching as the image eventually faded to one of him beating his childhood bully almost to death, in which dream he followed what happened to the Bully, seen barely breathing in bed, but just enough to tear away his oxygen mask and begin tormenting Jack again. Medical Staff and Engineers noticed very quickly Jack's increased heart rate and lack of reaction to all stimuli, and quickly began to drag him out of his REM Sleep. Once he was removed however, he was already over the edge. Jack tore free from his restraints and killed 11 of the staff assigned to him, while the others got away and he was heavily sedated. Halsey learned of the incident, and immediately began work on finding some way to control Jack's negative thought processes and limiting his cognitive functions, or at least devising a way to monitor them and directly affect them. She argued with herself that controlling some of his thoughts was no more immoral than letting him suffer further. Until her solution could come through, though, Jack was removed from active service immediately and locked up for his own safety aboard UNSC Trafalgar. AI Styx & AI Sibyl It took several months until Jack was taken back into active service, and ran an Op with SPARTAN - 087, Kelly. During which he was assigned AI Styx, named after the river which forms the boundary between Earth and the Afterlife in Greek Mythology. Styx was ONI's solution, an incredibly proefficient AI that could operate much faster than the majority of the other AIs at the time, though he had been in service already for six years, and was already showing signs of instability himself. AI Sibyl was Halsey's solution, which she handed to Spartan Program staff to install whilst she worked on her Latchkey Discovery on Reach, named after Greek Oracles. Unfortunately, the staff were somehow unaware of Styx's presence, and gave Jack two AIs, which Styx had secretly advised him not to protest to. It was here that Jack began his recovery, primarly with the aid of Styx. While Styx had been helping Jack recover, there were several instances over the next three years that lead Halsey to believe that treatment had been faulty, and that Jack was, concerningly, still in total control of his thoughts. Styx's job had been to separate all of his neurones from firing up simultaenously when he became enraged or angry, giving Jack a much denser combat efficiency, and removing the issue of migraines entirely. This also allowed Styx to separate Jack's thought processes and control the ones he didn't deem helpful, necessary, or safe. But Styx was approaching the end of his serviceable life, his own usefulness and cooperation with ONI's plans could not be accurately accounted for. Halsey's AI, Sibyl, had been assigned to soothe Jack's mind, calming his thought processes as carefully as possible whilst pushing away anything she deemed unsafe and burying it in the back of his mind. But she often came to blows with Styx, blows which played out often as two voices in Jack's head arguing, until he'd batted the side of his helmet to shut them up. This didn't shut them up, rather started to fire up Jack's agitated thought processes, and gave the two of them a lot of work to do before he lost control, prompting them to shut up. The Fall of Reach During the Battle of Reach, Jack had been assigned to protect the groundside Generators for the Super MAC Stations in orbit that were keeping the entire covenant fleet of over 500 ships effectively at bay. He had dislocated his shoulder during the jump from the Pelican, arguably getting away with the best of the injuries amongst the Spartans as four others died on impact. Some way into the battle, Frederic - 104, Kelly - 087, and Joshua - 029 headed out into a Covenant staging area to drop a small, tactical nuclear device and thin out the Covenant ranks before their generators were overwhelmed. Unfortunately, during the attack, Joshua was reported MIA suspected KIA after his Banshee fell of the scopes. This sunk Jack into a deep and immediate depression, only amplified by the later loss of Reach and many of his own friends after the Spartans were put vigorously to the test. They'd come out on top, at a collosal price. It took three years for Jack's depression to end, even after the end of the war he was unable to pick himself up again. That which removed him from his depression was far more disturbing. Pegasi Omega Incident Some time after the Great War (Roughly 2555), Team Hoplite was dispatched to one of many asteroids lying in an indirect orbit with the Outer Colony World Harmony. Their objective was to eliminate the Innsurrectionist General that ONI had claimed had set up a base of operations there. Two hours passed until the team reached the main compound, and up to now there had been limited resistance, and better yet they had spotted the General. However, for reasons that remain debated amongst some battle analysts today, the General was aware of the Spartan Team's presence, and briefly assaulted the Spartans over intercom before launching a series of highly nuclear missiles pointed at Harmony. Hoplite reacted immediately, their leader ordering that they stick to their objective, the General. Jack had immediately protested, arguing that they had two choices, kill the general, sacrificing the entire planet, or go for his courier carrying the kill codes and permit the General the time he needed to get away. Unfortunately for Jack, his team grossy disagreed, arguing that they'd been searching for this General for several years. After checking their orders with an ONI Prowler positioned overhead, Spartan Team Hoplite prepared to move. Jack begged with them one last time, that they had to remove the nuclear threat first, but their minds had been made up. As Spartan Team Hoplite began to move out, three very loud cracks sounded off, causing each suit of armour to collapse to the ground. Jack had stood over the bodies for almost a full minute, the horror of his actions would haunt him for the rest of his life. But he put his feelings to one side. SPARTAN 102 assaulted the Innsurrectionist Encampment alone, and turned the battle into a lengthy bloodbath. His inhumane acts of torture, dismemberment, disfiguring beatings, and unnecessary violent outbursts would later become one of the toughest foundations of his severe case PTSD, which he dealt with with more violence. Eventually, he had managed to neutralize the Rebel operating the kill switches, and detonated the nukes a safe distance from Harmony, he then focused on the General. It took a further two hours of battle, evasion, sneaking around, and blowing up every imaginable off-planet transport until he cornered the General. What he did to him, nobody knows, not even the ONI Prowler could see. Following the incident, ONI painted him as a war criminal, traitor, murderer, enemy of the UNSC, and planted him on their most wanted list. This brought the entire Spartan Program down on his head, as they relentlessly searched for him for years and years to come. Classic Space Adventures and the Cosmic Muffin I/II Some time into Jack's evasion of ONI censors and officers, as he continued to dodge Spartans searching the galaxy for him and had to hide his face everywhere, fake the number on his armour, and even adopt a new accent, Jack found himself aboard UNSC Ramillies. He had stowed away aboard the medical ship to reach his next destination, a hideout on Arcadia. However, some way into the trip, his ship was assaulted and immediately destroyed, killing everyone onboard but him as he was launched out into space. He soon found himself aboard the perpetrator ship, the Cosmic Muffin, but the sudden change in atmospheric pressure caused his visor to implode over his face and cause incredibly facial damage and scarring, the reaction to which his aging AIs could not control, and as a member of the Cosmic Muffin, an deep cover ONI Agent known as Everest, came to inspect him, he flew into a rampage. The resulting fight left Everest only alive because his suit willed it so, tore a huge hole in a Pelican, broke several bulkheads and caused Jack to pass out from energy expenditure and pain. Yautja Encounter It was here that he was abducted by an alien known as the Yautja, a Predator, which trained him in the ways of it's kind in order to help him seal his revenge on the crew. The training was tough, but Jack was able to grasp it, and soon became rather adept at stealth. The Yautja fixed his facial scarring and trauma by ways of a mask that would feed anaesthetic through to him constantly. The anaesthetic used was enough to knock out 30 Rhinos, but only enough to keep 102 calm and keep his pain at bay. Second Encounter on the Cosmic Muffin Eventually, it was time for him to return to the Muffin, and he did so by breaking through the hull and arriving in it's Recreational Centre. He was greeted by an individual clad in 23rd centry post apocalyptic armour, but soon located his target when Everest confronted him. The fight that ensued once again left Everest completely battered, without so much as a scratch left on 102. Everest had had his ribs crushed, broken, snapped, and splintered into all major organs sparing his heart and one kidney when Jack lifted him over his head and slammed him down on an outstretched knee, breaking his back in several places. This finally left Everest out of the fight. Other clashes with the crew of the Cosmic Muffin saw him battling a Titan on some run down space station, Kamino, and a Forerunner planet harbouring the Didact. Cosmic Muffin Crashes Some time into his long list of encounters with the Cosmic Muffin, immediately following his visit to Kamino, the entire ship had exploded in space and crashlanded into a nearby planet. Jack dispatched the newly abducted Everest to retrieve a sensitive case from the Muffin's medic and local Clone Trooper, Caluum Fallire, which contained a fetus of the very template for the Clone Project. Jack needed this for his own plans, and would return to Kamino with it, but instead of taking the template by force, Everest warned the crew. Jack immediately took to the planet in an escape pod meant for deep space trajection, meaning the pod arrived in under two minutes to it's destination, and he immediately tore his way out of the pod and sneaked his way aboard the tank Everest and the Fetus were located. He began yet another engagement with the crew, including three Clones, the medic Cal, and Everest. Unfortunately for the crew, this resulted in a crushing defeat, as Jack ripped the Clones apart, tearing some of their limbs off and beating Everest and Cal quite severely until Styx recommended his retreat, having come up with a new plan that took less risks. Recruiting Spartan Team Barricade Styx was still classed as an ONI AI, and with his clearance he transmitted a message to ONI, requesting the immediate allocation of a handful of Spartan IVs. ONI were incredibly and unusually lenient with handing Spartans over to the AI, but they also thought little of the Spartan IVs. Eventually, Jack was met with four Spartan IVs, his new team; Barricade. His first assignment for them was to dispatch them to the Cosmic Muffin II and seize the Medical Officer Cal, an assignment they completed almost without incident, until one of the Spartans was killed and detonated his armour. The resulting explosion merely shuddered the Muffin, as it was carried out into space. Styx's Plan, Kamino, and 102's Turnaround Soon after began Styx's plan to build an army of Spartans on Kamino, Clones of Jack, "perfect" soldiers with no emotional restraint and terrific anger management issues. They set this plan to motion in the underwater cities of Kamino, a derelict research centre would provide the perfect location, and a Monolith in the centre would be the building from which they would work. Their plans were thwarted however, as Cal refused to cooperate, resulting in Jack snapping his leg in two and assigning Everest to beat him further should he continue to refuse to cooperate. Everest was, up until this point, controlled and kept on a leash entirely by Styx, Jack's AI, and was most obedient when nearby as Styx could not leave Jack's mind lest the Spartan suffer a brain death and die himself. Styx had mastered projecting himself across small distances, allowing him to be inside Everest's head and Jack's at the same time without having to be docked or plugged in to both. Their plans were further thwarted as the Cosmic Muffin's crew arrived to rescue Cal, and a gigantic space battle had begun over Kamino between the UNSC and the Gryllian Empire. Jack changed plan, despite Styx's protests, and intended to kill everybody and leave the planet. But before he could put any of his plans into practice, Sibyl made her presence known and seized control of two massive Protectors in the room, gigantic machines that had been tasked with taking control of the city after it had gone dar following several experiments. The two Spartan IVs battled one of the Protectors while Jack battled the last, but his engagement had launched him out of the Monolith and into the deepest reaches of Kamino's ocean. Almost crush depth. Back in the Monolith, Sibyl used Styx's absence to lock down the Spartan IV's armours and incapacitate Everest. She had been cooperating with Cal since they'd arrived on the planet, no longer willing to serve Jack or work with Styx, and she begged Cal to claw himself out from beneath one of the Spartan IVs who'd now rendered both of his legs useless, and restore Everest's original AI to him; Prophet. The struggle almost caused Cal to pass out from the pain ravaging its way through his body, and he was unable to get the AI chip to Everest. Luckily, Everest had recovered quite quickly, and noticed one of the Spartans clasping something tightly in his fist that Cal had been attempting to reach for. Everest took it as a hint and removed the AI Chip, inserting it into his helmet after being prompted by Cal, and was finally restored to his former self. Everest engaged the two Spartans immediately, easily overcoming their mediocre speed and training with his Nanosuit and superior Deep Cover Training, but was forced into a ranged battle with them as they pressed him out into the central room of the Monolith, a circular room with a large hole in the middle that reached all the way down to the bottom of the Monolith again. Everest was easily overcoming the Spartans still, until he began to press back, and one of the Spartans tackled him over the edge, causing the two of them to plumet a thousand feet down to their inevitable death. The last Spartan had been dispatched by Cal's girlfriend, after the crew barged their way to his location. Whilst all this had been happening, Styx and Sibyl had been docked with the city, Jack now had no AIs in his head at all save a small fragment of Sibyl's intended to keep him alive by keeping watch over his cognitive functions. However, because the two AIs had been docked with the city, they'd began tearing the entire place to pieces as they fought eachother, causing ghost holograms and memories to walk the city's streets as inhumane and terrifying screams pierced the crisp air. Jack left immediately, he had had enough, he returned to the surface and boarded his old ship of operations; UNSC Dauntless, a UNSC Cruiser. He turned himself in, the resulting trial was carried out aboard the ship and ONI thus had no part in it, which later turned against the Captain as he himself was targetted for a very severe court marshall. Jack's trial found him guilty of murder, treason, and gross negligence in the line of duty. It also found him honoured with keeping to the noblest of UNSC military traditions and their code of conduct. He had saved an entire colony at a great personal cost, putting the lives of millions before his own or anyone else's. The trial outraged several Spartan IIs already on the ship, Linda - 058, and Fred - 104. The latter of which assaulted Jack aboard the ship and slashed his throat, leaving the knife embedded into the underside of his chin, up and through his tongue. This injury prolonged Jack's need for the mask, which he was slowly coming to rely on less and less. Third Encounter with the Cosmic Muffin and Alliance Some time after Jack's trial, he was assigned to operations with SPARTAN - 034, Samuel, one of his closest friends. Samuel proved to be an incredibly efficient replacement for Styx and Sibyl, causing Jack to calm down much more frequently and rarely causing him to fall over the edge. His operations brought him back aboard the Muffin, as he started an uneasy alliance with the crew to right some of his wrongs, mostly as instructed by Sam. Kamino and the Empire At some point during Jack's pairing with the Muffin and it's crew, he found himself back on Kamino, the Muffin's plan this time had been to liberate it. Cal, the medic, had collected a large number of specialist Clone Troopers that Sam regarded rather highly. The Liberation of Kamino from the Empire would prove to turn Jack's life and views around entirely, and finally bring him back to the light. Jack had turned up to finally settle his business with Cal, vowing that it was he who would kill the Clone who had threatened his life so many times before, not the Dark lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Jack confered with Vader before the Empire's response assaulted Kamino, stating that he would help the Empire if they provided him with a window, but on one condition; he wanted his blood debt paid. And he would collect it. He cared not at all for the Muffin's liberation plans nor the Empire's retaliation, and indiscriminately tore through Clone Trooper ranks and Stormtrooper ranks alike, inadvertently turning the battle against the crew, in a brash attempt to reach Vader before the Muffin's crew did. He was too late, as by the time he had arrived, Vader had already cut Cal's closest assortment of Clones down along with several other Clone Specialists. Jack launched himself down to Vader and Cal's level, already seeing the latter engaging Vader in very close combat, which surprisingly seemed to show Cal holding his own against the dark lord. Jack quickly intervened, battling the two of them simultaneously. At this point, Cal removed himself from the equation, unable to keep up and letting the dark lord and the Spartan fight. Jack had seemed to hold the upper hand throughout the battle, but that soon turned on him as Vader tried to distract him, permitting an opportunity to finish the Spartan off. Vader revealed that the Empire had been collaborating with ONI from the beginning of the Great War, permitting ONI valuable resources, but in exchange the Empire had been eliminating select Spartan IIs that ONI saw as financial reliabilities. Vader tricked Jack into believing the Empire had killed Spartan - 087, Jack's closest friend, and that ONI had permitted such a move. Vader obliterated Jack's mask, causing the anaesthetic administering to fail completely, causing him immense pain, and with the lack of his AIs save for a small segment of Sibyl, he was unable to countermand his vicious outbreak of rage. During the time in which Jack had become distracted, stumbling a little, a huge wall segment had pinned him and the dark lord against the furthest wall of the room. Vader was the first to recover, but as the dark lord had leapt for Jack, the Spartan had broken out of the wall segment and began assaulting the dark lord anew. During an attempt from Vader to slice Jack's arms off, Jack used the small opening he'd been provided to pin the dark lord against a wall and begin beating him to death with a renewed rage he had not been exposed to since his traumatic events as a child. His vicious attack caught the dark lord by surprise, and he was unable to counterattack Jack, his greatest attempt resulted in the Spartan ripping out his heart and crushing it before Vader's eyes. Jack eventually collapsed, unable to fight off the pain. The Battle for Kamino was later won as the Stormtrooper Corps were turned on the Empire, and Jack was put into medical stasis for the medical bots to begin their work. He soon after joined the Cosmic Muffin II as an official crew member, and began his work to reunite the entire Spartan II Program, bringing every Spartan II back together again. Life as a Crewman of the Cosmic Muffin II ---GUNNA BE GONE ALL WEEKEND, WILL UPDATE THIS PAGE ASAP--- Almost done. I think...